That Sober Guy Podcast

SGR Ep156 - Gangs, Guns and Tattoos with Freddy Negrete

My name is Shane Ramer. As long as I was high I didn't have to feel. After 17 years of struggling with drugs and alcohol on September 11th, 2013, I got some help. Life is pretty good today, and I like to talk shit and laugh about it all while sharing some of my own experience with the hope that it might help someone else. I try not to take things too serious, and I fold my toilet paper, people who crumple have to all wrong! Check us out at www.ThatSoberGuy.com

Freddy Negrete is
best known for pioneering the black-and-gray tattoo style while
serving time in a series of correctional facilities. While still a
youth, Freddy entered into a life of abuse, gangs, crime, and
drug addiction. Freddy's is best known for originating the early
"prison-style" designs that eventually found their way onto the
streets of East LA. Freddy has been featured in the History
Channel's Marked series, in the documentary Tattoo Nation, on Spike
TV's Inkmaster as a guest judge, and in numerous print, online, and
video publications. He has worked as a tattoo consultant on over 30
Hollywood films including Batman, Blade, Con Air and Austin Powers.
He currently works at The Shamrock Social Club on the Sunset
Strip.

In this episode we talk about:

Heroin

What gang life was really like in East LA

Freddy losing 9 friends to gang violence

How Freddie started tattooing

Good Time Charlie's Tattoo shop

How to express God to a newcomer

How Freddy talked to God when he was close to death and
asked for redemption

Why at one point It was impossible for Freddie to have
faith

Smile Now, Cry Later: Guns, Gangs and Tattoos—My Life
in Black and Gray By Freddy Negrete and Steve Jones

Published by Seven Stories Press, New
York

Book Description:

Pioneering black-and-gray tattoo artist Freddy Negrete
was twelve years old and confined in the holding cell of a Los
Angeles juvenile facility when an older teenager entered—covered in
tattoos. Freddy was in awe, not just of the art, but of what it
symbolized, and he wanted what this kid had: the potent sense of
empowerment and belonging that came from joining a gang. The
encounter drove Freddy to join La Sangra, and it didn't take long
before he was a regular guest at LA County's juvenile detention
facilities. By the age of twenty-one, Freddy had spent almost
his whole life as a ward of the state in one form or the
other.

Enthralled by the black-and-gray tattoo style that in
the 1970s was confined to the rebel culture of Chicano gangsters
and criminals, Freddy started inking himself with hand-poked
tattoos.In a riveting narrative that takes the reader from Freddy's
days as a cholo gang member to evangelical preacher to Hollywood
body art guru to full-blown heroin addict, Smile Now, Cry Later is,
ultimately, a testament to that spark within us all, that catalyst
which gives us the strength to survive, transform, and transcend
all that can destroy us.

Purchase Smile Now, Cry Later here:

About the Podcast

That Sober Guy Podcast was created by Producer Shane Ramer. Shane battled a 17 year alcohol and drug addiction and in 2013 he sought treatment. Less than a year later, he started That Sober Guy Podcast as a way to allow others to share their experience and bring light to a topic that so many find it difficult to talk about. Today, TSG is one of the top recovery podcasts with millions of downloads across multiple continents. Shane try's not to take things too serious. He fold's his toilet paper, and says people who crumple have to all wrong. He lives in Northern California with his awesome wife "The Jess" and two awesome kids Lucy and Cash. Check out TSG at www.ThatSoberGuy.com